Northwest Central Dispatch System 9-1-1 center is reporting to emergency vehicles on the street that the 9-1-1 dispatch center is receiving multiple phone calls about icy roads.
Hoffman Estates firefighters also reported on their fire communications radio that roads in Hoffman Estates are ice-covered.
Palatine Rural FPD Engine 36 crew also reported that all streets in their area appeared ice-covered.
The NWS Freezing Rain Advisory expired at midnight, but road conditions are actually worse in the northwest suburbs this morning.
No updates are available on property damage crashes; road blocks; and specific traffic, road and weather conditions because local police agencies in the northwest suburbs use a secret, military-grade radio system that prevents the media and citizens from monitoring conditions in their neighborhoods.
Rain on cold ground's turned to ice Rockford area.100s of accidents;snowmobile rescues of stranded planned Winnebago/Stephenson counties
— Skilling (@Skilling) January 11, 2014
Cardinal Note: As of June 5, 2013 — up to and including the date of this article — police incidents related to the above police agency are not reported in real time or within a prompt time period. Police protecting their realm of investigation and police activity, have chosen to use secret military-grade encrypted radios to withhold their police communications, which were previously open to the public and news media via monitoring of public safety scanning radios — with no known negative results locally.
The delayed knowledge or entirely blacked out knowledge resulting from encrypted police communications may protect certain police operations and investigations, but it also puts the public at risk in situations such as when armed and dangerous offenders are at large and when other similar situations occur, such as when desperate offenders of property crimes are eluding police. In other cases, the delayed or blacked out information inhibits or prohibits the possibility of the public providing early witness accounts before a criminal trail goes cold. Citizens are much more likely to recognize or recall suspicious or criminal activity if they are aware of the criminal incident within minutes or hours of its occurrence. The most serious incident involving dire results would be a trail that is allowed to go cold in the case of child abduction.
The lack of real time information from public police dispatch also weakens an effective neighborhood watch program mostly working to prevent property loss, but also working to prevent possible violent crimes.
Police have alternate ways to transmit tactical, operational or investigative information, while still keeping their main public dispatch channels open for the best balance of public safety and police safety.
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